THE ULTIMATE HUMANKIND TIER LIST | Ancient Era Cultures

[@Lazuli901]

Myceneans are a solid S tier imo. Just think of them as a builder culture instead. They can set you up so well for the next era. Early stars really aren't critical, as you're behind the AI until about the medieval anyway. Even without military stars, you're gonna have a fantastic production base heading into the classical, a solid enough unit to not feel unhappy about, and actual districts that benefit from being on the liberty axis. Easily one of my favorite ancient cultures.

[@a.m.hofmeister725]

Cyclopean fortress is probably the best unique building in the ancient culture. It provides a massive chunk of stability, it is essentially a garrison, AND that production is good good yum yum.

[@emylily8266]

honestly, the only reason Myceneans arent the strongest Ancient era culture is because the Egyptians have the strongest unit in the era as well as being op builders. Theyre both awesome at early production, with Myceneans added stability benefit being a better transition into classical era, where you may not go builders since maya are meh.

[@4manchu]

@@emylily8266 Also, the stability bonus of the Cyclopean Fortress in practice is +25, not +15, because it functions as a Maker's District but does not cost you the -10 stability of a regular district. It's pretty much a must if you want to wide ranging cities, or to try a 'one city challenge'.

[@naarutv5402]

Imo, the highly specialization of Zhou makes them tier A. It is true that they are not suitable for every game, since they depend on mountains, but man, if they get those mountains... the snowball effect is insane. That´s why using your criteria, they would be mid-high tier A.

[@bobwinters5572]

Never found that district useful. A maker's district in the same spot will collect the industry from the mountains and let you build anything else that would be more useful to your game long before you would complete the Zhou district. Industry is by far the best resource. On top of that, the chariot comes so late that it's already the next era before you get it.

[@TheOriginalPoon]

But you’re going to fill out the Ancient era techs very quickly, and you won’t be able to research anything else until the next era. Babylon is far better for science because you can keep researching into classical era, and your science still snowballs in the early game, AND you get bonus era score for all of this. With the Zhou, you cap out on science stars, and you don’t get extra points.

[@michaellewis9462]

They're reliable even if you don't get the mountains. The stability bonus allows you to safely build 20% more districts. Best bet with the Zhou is to find two territories, one with food and the other preferably all industry with a mountain or two. Turn the first into a city, then immediately connect the second for industry. Drop the district and watch your science propel. Just their special district alone will continue to propel through classical era techs. Once you get research quarters drop those to keep the ball rolling. My only complaint with Zhou is that their special unit is really so-so

[@MegaBearsFan]

One thing that I think you missed with the Nubians is that their Pyramid counts as BOTH a Makers Quarter and a Market Quarter, which means that it exploits both production and money. This makes it much more versatile than other districts that only exploit 1 yield. Nubians can place the pyramid as a buffer districts between a cluster of Maker Quarters and a Cluster of Market quarters (say near a coast where the Market Quarters will be adjacent to a harbor), and that pyramid will provide adjacency bonuses to all the districts around it. It also means you can place the pyramid next to luxury resources to get the adjacency from them and also get any production in the adjacent tiles.

[@PhoenixStriker1]

It also gets 10 stability from adjacent commons quarters instead of 5 because of that

[@michaellewis9462]

Biggest thing I noticed that was missed here is that early on you cant yield a large army without production and money, Nubia provides both and you'd like to go defensive the Ta-Tsetis are unmatched by any other ranged unit at that point. They even hold some weight going into classical.

[@LarsSeprest]

You seem to have misread the Phoenician Bireme ship tooltip: it can cross oceans by taking damage, you can spend 3 turns at sea altogether. This in practice means you can get to uncontested discovery tiles well ahead if any other culture to easily get an average 10science or gold per turn out of them if you're fine microing their exploration. Can also scout out the new world and meet more cultures so that you can make early trade routes and turn your money into other FIMS through bought luxuries. The boats alone can double your science if you are lucky. Also keeping these around will scale as the discovery tiles can even get you era appropriate ships without the tech. So having 2 groups of these (btw they are only 1 income) can get you carracks as soon as you hit the early modern era.

[@emylily8266]

i wanna double this, if you spawn kinda isolated, finding more trade partners is huuuge.

[@LarsSeprest]

@@emylily8266 Yeah probably depends on the type of map you are playing on. I've been doing chaotic large ~3 large continents so a lot of places can be found just 1-2 turns at sea away and there is usually more coastline compared to the regular presets as well.

[@Dimplepig]

Not only that, you can also build regular harbors in addition in later eras so you can double up on those infrastructure bonuses and get a ton of yields if you get enough coastal tiles

[@SeaCow1g]

Zhou’s biggest problem is the Aesthete affinity. If they were a science affinity they’d be S tier.

[@emylily8266]

early Aesthete is so good at making AI friends and influencing indepents ppls tho (through maxed idelogical proximity), sure its not op like builder/scientist, but id say just as good as the baseline..

[@SeaCow1g]

@@emylily8266 It's not that I think Aesthete is BAD it's just Builder and Scientists are overpowered. Past the Medieval Era the Builder/Scientist affinities become so strong in fact that you want to pick those cultures just for the affinity; nothing else matters. Look at the Austro-Hungarians in the Industrial era for example....their kit is amazing yet because they are Aesthetes they get outshined by the French who have the ability to beeline Fusion reactor within like 10 turns as soon as the industrial era starts. You know there's a balance problem when you're picking cultures just for the affinity. With the Zhou the problem is even greater because they generate alot of SCIENCE not influence. Yes the stability helps but at this point in the game they don't have enough population for it to matter. They would be S tier however if they had the ability to capitalize on their science generation and rush Classical era technologies. The synergy there would be fantastic. So, just to reiterate: Aesthete is no bad, but it's underpowered compared to the alternatives and it does no synergize well with the Zhou in particular.

[@emylily8266]

@@SeaCow1g oh absolutely, they outshine literally everything else its absurd, plus it feels weird that you don't even get a similar ability for gold generation lol. We need a hard nerf, id prob go so far as cutting out the conversion altogether even if thatd trash the first few eras for science cultures. It's not like near infinte stability and beelining capability isnt an awesome bonus already for them.

[@Anarch_Bushey]

Problem? I think it's a good compromise. If it was Science it would require heavy nerfs.

[@derekrocco4344]

Since Era stars come more easily for non-primary affinity, I'd argue it's a buff that they're aesthetes, since they can rake in the science stars faster and advance faster to Classical. Screw fame, the lategame snowballs so fast and with so much fame at stake that even on Humankind difficulty I usually beat the AI by 3-5k.

[@aloneill6337]

Just watching this now. I have to say, I like the Hittites for one specific reason - the Awari saves you both industry and influence in the early game when both are hardest to come by. While others are building EQs, you can be working on pumping out the Gigir in volume. Alternatively, you could snipe the first wonder.

[@bananaman4624]

In the next tierlist can you talk about the fame gain since you gain more fame with your cultures affinity and its A LOT easier to gain 10 techs with Babylon then 600 culture with Zhou which can make the difference in a tight game.

[@JumboPixel]

That is one of my four key assessment metrics (covered at the start, and in more detail at the end of the video too)

[@LMcK-fv2ie]

really like how you include gameplay :)

[@LiamJamieTaylor]

So many cultures I hadn't realised were so strong until this tier list. Please make more for each era as I seem to find myself going for the same S tier cultures in each era otherwise!

[@justinsbob]

Pro tip about the Harappans’ Emblrmatic District. It counts as a river, so if you don’t have any access to natural rivers, you can use them to give yourself some. This is especially useful for Wonders, since some of them must be placed adjacent on rivers.

[@okin536]

Fun video, but you are definitely sleeping on Nubians. If this was for a competitive multiplayer lobby, they would be on the same level as Harappa/Egypt. Their LT takes time, but gets absolutely bonkers as you get access to more resources. The early access to money means you have access to more (trade) resources earlier--and resources are OP. You already mentioned it, but their EU--the Ta-Seti Archer--is one of the best early game units. Even without min-damage cheesing into the Early Modern-era, they are incredible at early rushes--being a free archer-upgrade that doesn't need line-of-sight. And you know the benefits of their EQ. Personally, I would put them at top of A-tier using your criteria, since they do require trading and access to resource deposits to really snowball. For S tier, it's arguable but Harappa > Egypt economically since Harappa has better scaling. Egypt has good flat bonuses to industry and influence for the snowball, but pops are king. They generate more influence (and workers) once they get going. Though, I do like playing Egypt more and the early Markabata rush is really strong. Babylonians meanwhile are great on paper but are held back because Scientists take longer to get stars. So they will get to the Classical era later than others. I'd personally place them somewhere in B because they're fun, but not competitive. But context is everything and this isn't a MP tier list. Either way, I had fun watching it :)

[@ricopoisson]

The Nubian surprised me when I first played them and contrary to what you said get their adjacency quite early since they get it from makers quarters and not market quarters. You said it right but I think you got them mixed up.

[@werdfeefs7027]

Agreed! If you get a nice start and can settle 3-4 resources with your first two territories (and especially if you have the potential for an early wondrous effect on a luxury), the Nubians can be *really* good. That ability to buyout districts lets you patch up what would otherwise be weak in a way other cultures don't get so easily.

[@obliquelycod]

I wanted to point that out too. I picked the Nubians for my all merchant run (with industrial Siam b/c no industrial merchants) and they felt more like a builder culture that happens to get decent gold income. It felt like they would have set me up for a solid Classical military push had I not wanted to try a gold focused run, with all their production, supportive income, and decent archers providing the support for classical era military push with a good unique unit.

[@att7364]

Nubian synergies very well with persian, which could snow all your game on the gold output

[@caocao4731]

I think one thing about the Zhou that should bump them up to A despite a lack of direct aesthete strength is the stability bonus that stacks as you go further in the ages. Paired with Ming or Modern China you can get some serious megalopoli early on with nearly no stability issues.

[@bizi8143]

Zhou is S++ any time of the day. On higher difficulty is really good as you don’t lose as much stability as you normally would and that is through your entire game ( every 9 districts you got one for free). Only buildings that give you stability are forts, religious buildings and wonders. If you can spam those schools early on you are good for the rest of the game. Not to mention you will almost definitely finish ancient era tech tree first.

[@Worgrunner]

Ooo, I feel like you're underestimating Phoenicians a bit. First off, their boat can cross deep water. Instead of dying if left in deep water for two turns like all the other ships of the ancient era, it just takes damage, which means it can get almost anywhere. You can, long before any other culture, go out and get all those ocean anomalies that give you gold, free units, research, etc. Their harbors also synergise with all the other later harbors. They're an extremely solid foundation to build any ocean-going playthrough off. The only thing they're missing that would make them A or S tier is the ability to found outposts -from- their ships. The real life Phoenicians would sail to a place and set up shop there, but you naval units can't set up coastal outposts, and you can't embark land units until much later, pretty heavily nerfing what should be the phoenicians wide-sailing play style.

[@jordanrozum]

My tier list: S: Egyptians, Nubians, Mycenaeans A: Harappans, Assyrians B: Zhou, Babylonians C: Phoenicians, Olmecs F: Hittites You're way too mean to my favorite, the Nubians :) The Nubians are much more flexible than you give them credit for. The money and industry combo is more flexible than either resource alone. By combining regular production with buyouts, you can reliably outproduce anyone except the Egyptians and Mycenaeans while also affording a larger military and earlier trade. Because their EQ gets money from adjacent maker's quarters, you continue to increase both resources simultaneously for a long time (don't fall into the trap of building market quarters or filling trader slots!). This sets you up nicely for a transition to any builder or merchant culture in the next era. The Ta-Seti are strong and unlock early, and you'll have the early cash to afford a large army right out of the gate. Because of this, you can usually rush anyone except the Mycenaeans and win fairly easily, even on Humankind difficulty. Or, if you want to play more passively, you can focus on building up your cities, leaving them undefended, because you can panic buyout an army of Ta-Seti very quickly. Their LT scales badly, but early on it's a significant chunk of your income, even if you're very unlucky with resource spawns. In your Nubians clip, the LT is giving you just under half of your surplus income. This gives you a big early production boost, which helps get the snowball rolling. It is especially noteworthy that extractors on outposts help you produce things in your cities--no attachment required. I'll admit that they're tricky to play to full advantage, but basically, 1. Build the EQ, extractors, and a few makers quarters, but don't build markets or farms 2. Your EQ and LT give you plenty of early money, so don't fill those trader slots until at least the next era 3. If you have a neighbor, build/buyout an early army of Ta-Seti archers and warriors to rush ASAP; the timing on this is extremely tough to defend against 4. If you don't have nearby neighbor, don't build units; rely on your high income to quickly build an emergency army if necessary 5. Buyout as often as possible; if you do this, your output will be comparable to the Egyptians' (depending on your extractor luck) 6. Extractors on outposts give you money to produce things in cities, so go wide!

[@Klatchan]

Don't underestimate that +1 combat strength to ALL UNITS FOR THE REST OF THE GAME from the Hittites. If you're not planning to spend much time in the Ancient Era, that can be a huge boost down the line.

[@michaellewis9462]

Not to mention you can spam their EQ as it doesnt affect stability. Plus a EU with suppression on heavy cavalry

[@a.m.hofmeister725]

Please reconsider the Phoenicians. They scale ludicrously well especially on naval maps. You effectively get double harbors, because after you've built that Haven and progressed to the next era, you can build ANOTHER harbor and use that to help scale up with food if you can't get your hands on an agrarian culture. Where nubians are like a builder merchant, Phoenicians are like an agrarian merchant. One of my favorite picks, especially if you combine with the Carthaginians and the Norse AND the religious tenets focussed on the food on coast and lakes and the food on harbors. You scale incredibly.

[@Roryact]

Are they the only culture that needs to research it's emblematic district? You can't place it until after several turns in the ancient era.

[@nottopcat5956]

I feel like that tenet is vital for the Phoenicians to be good. Given you can’t guarantee getting it, I’d only take them as a last resort. You can get three harbours with the carthaginians and Norse anyway, and 3 is usually more than you need to exploit every bit of coast you have access to.

[@a.m.hofmeister725]

@@nottopcat5956 Yeah but you can just convert to the religion that has it lol. Sometimes...

[@calcifer948]

Really solid video. I'm really glad you went so in depth on each culture and I'm looking forward to the future tier lists.

[@Weraptor]

Egyptian UU is strong (better archer which is already op), can climb walls and is great at hit and run attack. You can rush them and raise them easily with the builder affinity action and wipe out your neighbor early on, letting you snowball.

[@fdmct]

yeah they are absurdly strong. you can cheese almost any fight by attacking and then using your movement to escape.

[@nxdiaz5916]

Plus, because of how late in the ancient era you get them, the unit also acts as a sort of archer upgrade for the classical era, an advantage most other cultures don’t have

[@Weraptor]

@@nxdiaz5916 late? they take just 2 techs lol

[@nxdiaz5916]

@@Weraptor I don’t rush techs unless I can afford to, and you really can’t in the ancient era with how scarce science is

[@Weraptor]

You want to have archery asap anyway and wheel isn't that costly compared to the absolute power spike that a 4stack of super-early marabatu can provide

[@emylily8266]

Honestly, an interesting way of buffing Phoenicians is giving their Havens an early Hamlet effect. It'd be an ode to the beta days where anyone could do that and would let you get much better early market quarters, since usualy you settle for production/food first, before going for gold. Edit* also obviously make their district not require tech, theyre literally the only culture limited by that.

[@claymathews8814]

Generally agree, though I think you underrated the Nubian Pyramids. It counts as both a Makers Quarter and a Market Quarter, which is great for adjacency. Plus, ive found that Merchant stars are pretty easy to get if you get a few of these Pyramids in good spots.

[@TheBoesie666]

You could make a video about humankind best map settings (for specific playstyles) and/or (best) player created map overviews. Anyway thanks for all the content your producing , with spectacular quality.

[@Mirkomir_Blobszczonowicz]

Well i would say that Zhou are somewhere between top A and C depending from the map :P But i would say that Zhou could be little reworked - maybe rather than +3 science from mountain +2 science and +1 influence? But overall my favourite ancient race when i play with lot of the mountains (also can't wait for true and rather easy to use map editor).

[@Anarch_Bushey]

Dead wrong about the Phoenicians, they get Navigator early with Biremes, and with that they get first contact with players across the ocean very easily on maps that have islands. Routing through coastal waters to get to new territory is incredibly important and being able to spend 2 to 3 extra turns in deep ocean is vital for that.

[@Anarch_Bushey]

The Zhou kit hits different. It's value is in the esoteric ways it improves your aesthete game, not by giving you influence directly but by interacting with the other systems in the game. Only two cultures create science districts in the early game. When it comes to stability the Confucian school doesn't exist and yet it interacts with science luxuries, science exploitations in an age that doesn't have science districts. Also, it provides bonus stability to things that have no net stability like Artisan districts. I think it's a bit busted tbh. 😕 and probably deserves a nerf.

[@s.punkt21]

Interesting to get your perspective. I recommend everyone to check out Colonel Uber's tierlists as well

[@jimmysaha9506]

Loved the video! It would be interesting to see some objective measures. Something like, which each Culture, how many turns did it take to gain X era stars or Y fame. Each game would be different but the variance can be reduced across the test games. For instance, one could always choose to settle an outpost on an average yield tile even though one with a higher yield is available.

[@seanheisler]

Been loving the content - thanks for it all! On the tier lists, I think I agree with you for early cultures that synergy is a thing that you won't consider, but as you get to later eras, I'd love to hear your thoughts if there are cultures that can have HUGE benefits if you happen to have the needed synergy (they might feel a bit like Zhou where in the right context they're awesome). For the earlier ones, was surprised you didn't really talk power scaling (or fall off). I've heard talk of Babylonian power being much more early game that falls off late since the number of techs isn't that strong.

[@MaxCheng95]

The best part about harbor symbolic districts are the fact that you can add ANOTHER ordinary harbor in the same piece of land after you switched out of the cultures with symbolic harbor districts. The yields two harbor district gives is just insane. Also I’m not sure about this and i haven’t try this yet, but in theory you can end up with THREE harbor districts in one land if you go Phoenicians than Carthaginian. It can potentially be extremely powerful if you play this right

[@Grothgerek]

Nubians on C or B? Did I miss a patch? They get quite much money for free, which you can use in all your cities. This is especially good, because there aren't many sources of money in the early game. In addition they have one of the strongest units in the game. There emblematic District is also a nice hybrid. Not only do you get much money from it, it still also counts as Makers Quarter.

[@bekirdarilmaz13]

Yh thats what i was suprised with nubians tend to be quiet high for me i was very supries by jumbo

[@deandickens2203]

The inflation mechanic makes money almost useless in my experience playing on endless. You're better off just building makers quarters in the end even as a merchant culture. Only thing money has been good for in my games are mercenaries, bribing violent city states, and unit upkeep.

[@Grothgerek]

@@deandickens2203 I agree that the inflation mechanic is broken. But you forgot that we doesn't talk about going pure money. Having a good passive income of money can be quite strong. Especially if you use it only for unit buyouts, upgrades or to attack territory. (I think all these option are also not affected by the inflation). And at the end, the Nubian pyramids are still makers quarter, so you still mostly build makers quarter.

[@AgentLando]

they're not as good as the a tiers, that's why

[@DigitalHawk96]

Nubians are amazing as soon as you notice a lot of luxury resources near your position, and close to your city. I had one multiplayer game that spiralled due to having two salt next to each other, a pyramid built between them... Then using that money buyout scheme to get ahead whilst salt was helping to boost my food - and using the Merchant trait to buyout salt to speed up gains. It was probably, silly to have 6 salt so early though.

[@Colourfrog626]

Something to consider for aethsthete cultures is that the ability doesn’t just secure your cultural influence, it also gives you a chunk of influence for every surrounding territory under your influence so its actually not bad to just drop it in the middle of your empire and get like 300 influence for 90 odd gold

[@MrCarlosdiago]

Something that people might not realise about the Zhou is that you get +2 stability on all districts. It is not that districts that cost 10 now cost 8. You get this from artisans quarters or forts which means that your stability budget goes a much longer way than with any other culture. Whereas with other cultures you might be fighting to stay afloat on 30 stability with the Zhou you can comfortably stay at 90 stability to gain double influence from pops. And this bonus is not map or game dependant.

[@MrCarlosdiago]

The intro alone deserves a like

[@mdeluxe1929]

My only thought on this ranking is input on the Harrapans. Their food generation actually means an early war or defense is very easy since you can pump out a lot of units with your population. And since units counts towards the population star, you are not hurting yourself much when you make units.

[@DrNakedinthenude]

Canal also makes tiles next to it river. you can put wonders that require river next to them

[@LarsSeprest]

You know, late game I'm wondering why I can randomly place a wonder where I shouldn't, I forgot that 200 turns earlier I had put down canals.

[@sayathekitsune3775]

Phoenicians are rly a hard one to rate. +2 god per trader scales not that well into lategame but its insane in the early game. also going into carthage and norseman (giving ya all ya need, gold,food,production and also a gold discount and gold raiding bonus) and then going into Netherlands with their insane harbor adjacency bank (or the Siamese with the floating market, a hard to place but insanely nice district)

[@ninjashot37]

What's not mentioned here is that the Phoenocian haven stacks with the Cothon, Naust & base harbour. So you can get 4 harbours in every territory. If you have a lot of coastline, planning around this can get you near infinite amounts of gold, food & industry since they all count as farmers quarters & market quarters. Also worth noting that you can use the Aesthete affinity to generate influence, this is better for Zhou's expansion & civics over the Olmecs but make's them very flexible. Stability, science & influence means you can kinda do whatever without worrying about keeping up.

[@chrisillsley5861]

Thanks for the vid! I love playing the Egyptians but I find it really hard to move quickly through the Fame stars with them. Maybe it's just me. So picking them sets you up great for the rest of the game, but you have to settle with your second culture pick.

[@nortondobbins]

I remember a while ago I played the Babylonians and used the collective minds early on and almost immediately got to Medieval technologies and just absolutely sped through classical Era techs with some taking 0 turns.

[@derwoodbowen5954]

Trying to play the Harrappans is really hard, as you mentioned. If you ever get the message, culture chosen, you can guarantee it was the Harrappans. The only way I could get them was to rush 5 population to get the star. I did not get the science permanent buff and did not get the hunting star. As I result I felt hamstrung playing the Harrappans because I had low population and could not boost my early cities. If I could get the Harrappans without rushing I might think more of playing them. That said, I am going to try them again.

[@Incogneto1981]

I would agree but I would put the Mycans in S tier but below the rest. They are banging ;)

[@otomegrandma7472]

I enjoyed seeing your opinions. It seems that you don't like range units much ahaha The merchant affinity is quite good early on! You can get your extractors on much faster while spending less influence and production. This gets you build stars, too, so it helps you get more fame/era up faster :D

[@solacmud826]

First time I've ever commented on youtube. Thanks Jumbo for the great content!

[@001648]

Oh man, been waiting on a tier list! I agree with the list, poor Hitts though

[@logano7678]

Assyrians are just fun like not super good but especially with some early war it’s awesome.

[@ryanmaunder240]

Fairly new to the game but I think I agree with this list! I haven't been able to play as every faction yet but from what I hear of the ones I haven't played it seems pretty accurate!!

[@jayhenry2197]

This is the video series I wanted. I took notes. I feel like maybe Phoenicians should be above Olmecs? I do think money is the 2nd most flexible resource behind production. So that har borbonus all game seems closer to B- to me than C+.

[@davidbodor1762]

Okay so counterpoint about the Hittites - They are one of the best Rusher civs. On par with the Harappans except the Harappans get taken 99.9% of the time, so the Hittites are actually really good. Here's why - If you build up a GIANT nomadic tribe I mean like 10+ pops at the very least, then go into the ancient era, your scouts get a +1 combat strength, meaning you can reliably win against the AI on anything but the highest difficulties and on higher difficulties you just have to outplay them but still the +1 helps a ton. You can rush into another civ, take their city. Boom. You're way ahead. Harappans get this too with their runners, so this isn't unique however it is VERY strong, eliminating a player right at the start comes with some pretty nice benefits. You can also vassalize them of course.

[@steviek6484]

Fun video. Only tried Egyptians so far

[@sayathekitsune3775]

Joe and Poland is a funny combo. having 24 stability fortifications and -6 districts

[@NovaBushido]

I think the nubians could be a high B rather than low B as they can produce decent industry along with good money. What I would like to see changed is buyout costs, I feel they're too high currently compared to just building via indusry. Also They're trait for money on resources can be very RNG as sometimes you don't get money resources where you spawn. If they can increase that, or at least buff up the +5 to like 10 or maybe even 15, that's be awesome. Then they could be A or S.

[@pwnzorkarl]

Nubians should be an A tier civ; they require a couple luxuries to work (map dependent) but if you get the luxuries they are insane. they can actually make enough money to get merchant era stars in the ancient era; giving you access to more fame than any other culture. Money is most valuable in the early eras where the buyout costs are very reasonable. the ability to rush buy to hook up luxuries and strategic lets you use your early production for something else. additionally the the money you produce from a Nubian start will be effective all the way through the medieval era; as no other merchant culture (save byzantines) are good. you can establish a money / trading economy early and then be very flexible in how you play the next eras. Trade is absolutely possible in the ancient era and ive had many games where if go every resource in the pangea already trading. you can use the trade to sling shot your economy as there are alot of valuable early game luxuries you can get your hands on to propel your cities. the archer is the best EU in the ancient period in my opinion as it is also the best ranged unit in the classical era. massing fire with archers one the first turn makes you win any battle; and the range and a damage from their archer helps this even more. they can also very easily scout rush a neighbor if you want some cheese-y opening as you need 1-2 archers and a horde of scouts from the neolithc.

[@sentz.]

such a video for every era....lit

[@cyberneticbutterfly8506]

Situationally someone going for different victory strategy might have this list flipped on its head. I'd love a tier list of overall game strategies.

[@JackFroster]

Do another list for the rest of the eras! I’ve seen probably a dozen ancient era lists and none for anything past it.

[@robjohnson3095]

Heh, trying to find something nice to say about the Awari... you shouldn't have bothered. By the way, you left out one huge minus of the Awari - it goes away. This is a huge demerit because an early and important way to generate influence early on (and for a long time!) is to ramp up the "influence from emblematic district" culture slider (towards Liberty, oddly enough, instead of Authority, which seems more related to influence to me). I will say one thing positive about the Hittites, sort of. I just finished a game for the Jack of all Trades achieve, ending with the Americans for Expansionist. The Hittite bonuses are fundamentally superior to the American bonuses at all levels. Fortunately, I had already won the game just be getting to the end first!

[@tutompop]

Good list. Unsubbed cause of Hittite ranking, resubbed for Mycenaeans. Liked for more culture era tier rankings. Would vassalize again

[@DigitalHawk96]

Also perhaps a nice rebalance of Zhou might be to reduce the science just a little... And giving use some influence per adjacent mountain. Because otherwise it REALLY bothers me how hard it is to achieve those aesthetic stars with the Zhou, its hard to find good ways to get more influence without a specific boost.

[@Deniz_50]

Zhou is my favourite in this era

[@yutterh9153]

The 30 wae support is more then just starting with extra 30. You also get a extra 30 wae score at the end of the war so you can take things easier.

[@Rascarn]

Great vid, I agree with you completely

[@wsw2291]

Great video. I actually think the AI picks Myceneans more often than Harappans. They almost always pick them first in my playthroughs. I think it's correct to put egyptians and harappans at the top because they don't care what's going on around them, industry and food go brrr no matter what. But you may spawn in and have horses and copper within two territories and ten mountains...then you go Zhou. Or you're on an isthmus and the AI is directly across from you on an island...then you go Phoenicians.

[@alexpack6638]

I would argue with you on nubia because their bonus money on resources is great because it is passive and constant so i would argue that it it quite powerful in that way.

[@PrivateNaelyan]

I thought i would like Babylonian but after several tries I just can't make them work compared to my usual pick (nubian/phoenician). Really bad influence generation, even if i rush liberty ideology slider to get influence on cultural buildings as always. Food/science combo is also especially horrendous on endless because of the scaling for building districts by sacrificing pop, cost is so high you can't ever use it, so it's just too much ressources invested in buildings that don't help you with the real construction resources (industry/gold). Even if you get tech faster you don't have the production to make use of that. I don't really like meta play so i usually stay clear from "S tier" (and even "A tier" based on this list), especially in ancient era. My usual pick are : 1st_Nubian : if there is some special resources because i really like their pyramid since it combines gold and industry production. 2nd_Phoenician : If i get some nice coasts (especially with hydrothermal tiles for early science) i will go phoenician all the time. 3rd_Olmec : If neither of those conditions are filled then it's Probably Olmec (because at least i can see value in influence for land grab early on) 4th_Zhou : Even if it doesn't help with getting production and has no proper influence generation even if it is listed Aesthete (insert "wtf" here), at least the stability gain makes up a bit for the lack of prod by making you invest in stability infrastructure a bit later. And yeah... i never pick an other 1st tenet than +2 industry on forest except if i don't have forest tiles, that thing is a game changer and never cease to be usefull. I'll never pick the food on coastal tile as long as population can't effectively be used as "building material" in endless mode and even then i have serious doubt i would consider it over other ones.

[@Tayen28]

Overall I agree with all of these. I can't argue with any of them. An excellent breakdown for each one. The Hittites truly are a letdown. The only good thing about them is their EU, a unit that can suppress right off the bat. Myceneans so far have become my main favorite to start off as, if they're an option when I get to that point. Love everything about them for my playstyle. Which I've turned into aggression/bullying at the beginning to make sure I have the resources to be self sustaining.

[@Bracket_Man]

32:45 they do make it into a sea grade?

[@Dimplepig]

Take your like and gtfo

[@someoldguyinhawaii4960]

These are extremely helpful, laying out the strengths (and shortcomings) of each culture. As a general rule, however, I dislike tier lists and rankings. They suggest that given a choice, one should ALWAYS take A, before B, before C, etc. So much depends on other factors, however. What might work best in one set up, might be disadvantageous in another. This is especially true in Humankind, given the randomness of the map layout, where it plops us and the other civs at start, the abundance or lack of curiosities - and all that before we even get to the Ancient Era. You barely touch upon this in the Mycenaean entry, and don’t really emphasize it until talking about the Phoenicians It also ignores what other civs have chosen, even if we chose first. I’ve played Harappans, Eqyptians and Babylonians and gotten my ass handed to me by Myceneans, Hittites, etc. Conversely, one of the best Ancient Era experiences I had during my initial playthroughs was as the Hittites. I played the Zhou numerous times during my first playthroughs and hated it - until I really learned when and how to play them. You also mostly ignored dual purpose districts, like the Meroe Pyramid - and the advantages that can convey (you did allude to this at least when discussing Havens). You also ignored the presence of independent peoples and influence via aesthete cultures (isolated from other civs does not always mean completed isolated). I think more distinction between ancient era versus legacy bonuses would be more helpful. I also think profiles on how to play each culture in different situations would be more helpful. On the plus side, you’ve now given me the challenge to play all the bottom tier cultures and see what I can do LOL. Again - very helpful - just not crazy about the rankings. The game is way too random and situational for that.

[@tric5122]

maybe i'm just unlucky, but I've struggled to find 2 horses to build the chariot units in the ancient era, by the time I do have them, i'm normally ready to move to the next era making the special chariot units moot.

[@itsukiorate4496]

Zhou should have been a scientific culture. I agree that both Hittites and Olmecs are very underpowered. The cultural trait of Hittites CAn be easily achieved with an early civic. Though, I think Babylon is not that powerful A tier since their trait is not scaling and the way they earn science is not reliable enough. For merchant cultures, their bonuses are hard to apply on ancient era since there is Not much trade, I wish they increase their gold bonuses for districts since I think gold must be used to strengthen the infrastructure and district building rate of these cultures in early game.

[@jad1714]

Zhou should be a stability culture though the mechanics of that may be more difficult to figure out

[@PedroOliveira-lk7be]

I think the phonesans shold BE at the top they have great ships and u can easy get to new Lane wight them

[@number1RabidPlatypus]

Shout out to Siri making an appearance at 27:50

[@ThePoeSalesman514]

Great watch. I do think your analysis fell down a bit in regards to influence generating potential. Specifically in two respects. First, population provides influence and thus the ability to generate population is an ability to generate influence. This would have strengthened the case for the Babylonians, the Olmecs, the Harappans, for example. Second, whatever your culture, you can get yourself into the Liberty side of the liberty/authoritarian axis to start generating +2 influence per emblematic quarter. The effect this has on the analysis is that it shrinks the gap between, say, the Egyptian pyramids which have +1 influence innately, and the Meroe pyramids of the Nubians. It is another nail in the coffin for the Hittites unfortunately as the liberty bonus applies only to quarters in attached territories (if that changed though the Awari would look a lot stronger...)

[@threshdyr8871]

Will you make that for all eras?

[@SabreNation1]

I don't necessarily disagree with Nubians being B tier as a general statement but they need an asterisk kind of like Zhou. If you get the right start they absolutely catapult in front of everybody. If you get a strong start where you can grab 5-6 or more resources then Nubia immediately becomes god tier. Production, food, science, etc become immediately irrelevant because you can just buy whatever you need. Need more food? Buy farmer's quarters. Need more science? Buy research quarters. Need more production? No, you don't. What kind of filthy peasant builds things? Here's a pile of gold - give me one of everything. I'll take Nubia with a 5+ resource start over any Ancient Culture in the game and it's not even close.

[@justinlundstrom1342]

I'd like to see an updated tier list after the updates

[@BlazedWrath]

I dont understand how Harrapans are so good. The thing with Egyptians is that theyre focused around industry which makes everything in the city run faster and smoother. Their cultural ability makes it so theyre locked in on industry and can essentially build anything in one turn. Harrapans have food. I found while playing that even if you want to use population as a resource to build you can still only build 2-4 things before you run out of population, then, because youre not focused on industry, your next districts or infrastructure are gonna take 5-7 turns anyway just undoing the speed of the population resource. Plus, units take 1 population each anyway which can take 3ish turns to build. I just dont understand how Harrapans can compete with Egyptians or even are above any of those A tier cultures. Id actually rank them B personally. Youre basically relying on the river to be strong and thats the same uniqueness as the Zhou.

[@MisterMarto]

I find the olmecs javelin throwers extremely underpowered given you have to be adjacent to the enemy to use your attack, but you still suffer the standard ranged unit penalty to melee. They are very deadly but extremely vunerable. Also the Zhou are S tier imo, so long as you've got some mountains to take advantage of.

[@marcus7564]

I find militarists like Myceney the best early game when I play on empire difficulty as the ai often overruns me early on.

[@ravenxgaming9195]

The only thing I truly disagree with is the Olmec Emblematic Unit. I've played more ancient eras in my 120 hrs as Olmecs than any other culture (I want to love them so badly). The problem with the javs is they can not fire without line of site, often getting blocked by other units, terrain, etc..and getting a melee penalty. They need to be slightly stronger for having no indirect fire.

[@LarsSeprest]

Really disappointing you can't build both emblematic and regular unit after certain points, or your emblematic unit gets replaced by a generic one that may do something worse. I want options! Example being the Japanese zero plane which has super low upkeep, vs high upkeep upgrade that gets 0 extra attack only 2 extra range. Sometimes I churn out a few extra archers and save scrum to protect them as I really dislike that somehow a society that has crossbows forgets to use regular bows? I also basically make a circle around certain techs because of this.

[@stevenharkema5456]

Babylon is actually pretty decent - I actually delay my entry into the Ancient Era until I find 10 science discoveries to get the +1 industry bonus. The AI doesn't seem to pick Babylon so it helps make up for the weakness for industry. The extra tribes I get for staying in the Neolithic Era I basically bump into my capital and find that I do pretty decent. I also like the fact that they can go beyond their era in the tech tree which makes me feel less punished for staying in an era longer. Not as strong as the Harrapians or Egyptians, but still not too bad.

[@nottopcat5956]

I like them. I really like the district science specialist boosts. Get two cities with four territories/districts, merge them, then scientists don’t consume any food and get +8 science. Pretty strong, but hard to do on high difficulty without falling massively behind

[@lodestar536]

It's so sad I love my Olmecs T_T. Also I need to try the Assyrians

[@Loxorius]

Another problem with the Hittites is their EU i think. While strong, it is cavalry and therefore just not really suited for conquering cities (unless the AI is stupid and charges them). Unless I'm missing something of course.

[@swefress]

I suppose this needs an update?

[@tomsai1257]

I was wondering : how high would you put the Harappans on a game with no river ? In all of my game, I got no river at the start, and so I choose the Babylonians or the Egyptians, even though I could still choose the Harappans, because I was the first to choose, and I didn't pick them, as I felt like there were mainly a river culture as the Zhou are a mountain culture or the Phoenicians are a coastal culture, and I wonder if that was a mistake.

[@JumboPixel]

Nah I think you’re probably right - rate to not be able to find a rice within your starting area though! I think Zhou is a fantastic pick (with two mountains at least). I personally prefer them to Babylon. I’ve had some fun phoenecian starts too - the Carthage following is great.

[@angelspike]

jumbo, you mixed up makers and market quarters again!

[@logano7678]

There’s just something about a tier list man

[@radeksilar543]

Funny, when I started, I almost always have Zhou or Olmecs :D

[@JohnVanderbeck]

How you put Babylonians above Assyrians while pointing our 2 or 3 downsides to Babylonia is beyond me. Assyrians are excellent for early expansion which is exactly what you should be doing in this era.

[@Joe_doesnt_know]

Can u do a beginners guide for console players since it just released on consoles.

[@pdraggy]

People always say you get the same thing with mycanae as Hittites but with extra perks! ... Yeah it's not, at least in the long run I wish people wouldn't make that assesion. The Hittite plus 1 power is much better than 1 free veterancy.. but yeah it's still highly underwhelming given everything else is straight trash xD And correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Phoenician emb quarter not unlocked till sailing?

[@idontknowhowtonamethings.6905]

Is this game worth it? Or should I wait for a sale

[@pwnzorkarl]

mycenaeans should be S tier from your logic or you should drop harapans to A tier. a harappan player with no river is very sad; they are extremely map dependent but you gave them S tier. the mycenaeans are much more versatile as regardless of how your land is you can go invade your neighbor. very few map types even have the possibility of being completely isolated, so to drop then for S to A for that is a bit cheeky.

[@logano7678]

The problem with babylonians is you get all this research and you research into the classical era but then if you don’t go research in classical you have nothing to research.

[@Brandonhayhew]

To be honest always build your city on coastal

[@LelouchTft]

Zhou A tier Nubia A tier Myceanans S tier with harrapa egyptians A tier Babylonian in average Assyrians C tier rest agreed

[@n1276lord]

Saying good things about the awaris challenge (impossible)

[@arvidgreat]

Humankind is like the civ series what the difference?

[@enKageKagen]

+1 movement foe Assyria is better than you state. You always collect those curiosities 1 turn earlier (earlier influ, science, cash), you can easily run away after eretreating, you can take more free independent cities. IMO I don't understand not putting Assyria in the S tier, even though expansion stars are the hardest to get - but in exchange you can always get easy tier3 esthate, unavailable for any other culture, and it pays off "lost" fame from expansion stars. And you can always buy population using influence as currency. Unlike other S tiers and Mycenians, Assyria is always available, so you can stay in neolithic longer, not risking losing neolithic trait.

[@JumboPixel]

Certainly a strong Civ. +1 movement does not mean you always collect curiosities one turn earlier though. At most, it’s a 25% increase in movement. Less if you’re crossing rivers or moving through forests most likely. Availability is not one of my considerations. It’s highly likely that the AI’s culture selection behaviours will be tweaked over time so it doesn’t make sense to calculate that in. Furthermore, some of us play against real people. Those considerations are entirely irrelevant for multiplayer. I think the Assyrians are a strong pick. A shame that expansionist stars are difficult to earn. That fame is lost (not replaced by aesthete stars, it’s just gone sadly).